Sr. Director, Assistant General Counsel - Intellectual Property

Company Description

Our Mission
At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

FLEXWORK is an employee-centric reimagining of how we work. We built FLEXWORK based on employee feedback – it is about flexibility, trust, and choice whenever possible. It’s been a journey of disruption that has yielded the best of our values. We offer as much flexibility as possible, and choices that enable you to be most productive, including benefits that meet your needs and learning opportunities that you feel passionate about.

Our Approach to Work

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work from the office three days per week, leaving two days for choice and flexibility to work where you feel most effective. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. While details may evolve, our goal is to create an environment where innovation thrives, with office-based teams coming together three days a week to collaborate and thrive, together!

Job Description

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks is looking for a strategic, collaborative and dynamic leader with 12+ years of experience, including time at a top law firm and ideally in-house high-tech practice, to join our Legal team. The Sr. Director, Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property will have primary responsibility for leading and managing the continued development and evolution of the company’s intellectual property portfolio, practices and risk mitigation strategies. This attorney will manage a team that supports all IP related matters, including IP litigation, patent prosecution, trademark, copyright and contractual IP issues. This role will report to the Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of the Global Legal and Policy Team, and will have significant interaction with the company’s management team and engineering leadership. This is an outstanding opportunity to work in a growing legal department at a fast-paced cyber security company.

The Team

Our Global Legal Department keeps pace with the rapid growth of the company and we are trusted business partners, providing practical advice while achieving business results. We are seeking a colleague who enjoys working collaboratively in a team environment within a dynamic company and can provide strategic advice to scale the program, team and support the growing business.

Your Impact

• Manage the company’s global IP strategies and policies.
• Oversight of the patent development program, including selection of inventions to protect, oversight of outside counsel’s patent drafting and prosecution and assessment of overall patent portfolio.
• Manage worldwide patent position including managing and leveraging outside patent counsel, performing quality review of patent applications and practices, and oversight of the preparation and prosecution of new patent applications.
• Oversight of all IP threats and outside counsel on IP litigation matters.
• Partner with Product Management and Engineering teams, including proactive development and continual improvement of IP strategies.
• Review and analyze third party IP portfolios to support Merger and Acquisitions and integration efforts. functions.
• Educate employees on patents, the patent process and protection of company confidential information and trade secrets.
• Support commercial legal teams with agreements involving complex technology and intellectual property matters, to ensure risks are identified, assessed and mitigated.
• Advise on trade secret, copyright and trademark issues to various business functions.
• Partner with Product Counsel on IP matters related to new product introductions, including the review of third party licenses.
• Assess and support open source compliance requirements with Engineering and Product Management, to include risk assessments, legal advice and governance matters.

Qualifications

Your Experience

• 12+ years of law firm and in-house experience in managing IP portfolios, IP transactions, IP litigation and partnering with company stakeholders on various IP and product related matters.
• This candidate must exhibit strong interpersonal skills and have experience working with highly technical teams.
• Must be able to work closely with all levels of employe